History Podcasts | History Hit

 

 

History Hit podcasts

The History Hit network gives you access to a growing range of podcasts presented by and featuring historians at the forefront of research and debate.

Scroll down to listen to the most recent episodes from our network.

Dan Snow’s History Hit explores the deep history behind today’s headlines – giving you the context to understand what is going on today. Everything has a history, every challenge made easier by understanding its nature, its genesis. In a world of fast opinions, we put historians into the debate, women and men who bring real knowledge built over careers spent researching.

The Ancients, hosted by historian Tristan Hughes, is dedicated to discussing our distant past. Historians and archaeologists join Tristan to discuss specific themes from antiquity, from Neolithic Britain to the Fall of Rome.

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb presents Not Just the Tudors. Together with expert interviewees, she covers the sweeping range of the early modern period: everything from the Aztecs to witches, Velázquez to Shakespeare, Mughal India to the Mayflower.

Gone Medieval is hosted by historians Matt Lewis and Eleanor Janega, who shine a light on one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood periods of history: the Middle Ages. In each episode, experts lead listeners beneath the skin of captivating stories to uncover new insights.

In Betwixt the Sheets join historian, Kate Lister as she unashamedly roots around the topics which seem to have been skipped in history class. Everything from landmark LGBTQ+ court cases, to political scandal, to downright bizarre medieval cures for impotence.

In American History Hit, join Don Wildman twice a week for your hit of American history, as he explores the past to help us understand the United States of today. We’ll hear how codebreakers uncovered secret Japanese plans for the Battle of Midway, visit Chief Powhatan as he prepares for war with the British, see Walt Disney accuse his former colleagues of being communists, and uncover the dark history that lies beneath Central Park.

After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal joined History Hit’s award-winning podcast network in October 2023, hosted by actor, writer and historian Anthony Delaney and writer, broadcaster, historian Maddy Pelling. Together, the duo unpick history’s spookiest, strangest and most sinister stories – from the disappearance of HMS Terror to the origins of Halloween.

War historian and broadcaster James Rogers hosts our Warfare podcast, which opens up fascinating new perspectives on how conflict has shaped and changed our world. James teams up with fellow historians, veterans, and experts to reveal astonishing new histories of inspirational leadership, breakthrough technologies, and era defining battles.

Patented, hosted by Dallas Campbell, dives into stories of flukey discoveries, erased individuals and murky marketing ploys with the help of experts, scientists and historians.

Click on any of the listings below to listen to the most recent episodes from our network.

All Podcasts

24:56

Cheddar Man: Science and the Skeleton

28 February 2021

Cheddar Man is the oldest almost complete skeleton of a Homo sapien ever found in Britain and, for this fantastic episode, Tristan spoke to the...

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31:03

Lockdown Learning: The 19th Century Medical Revolution

26 February 2021

The 19th century saw the world in the grip of the industrial revolution, a firepower revolution on the battlefield and a communications revolution...

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41:55

Daughters of Yalta

26 February 2021

In February 1945, the ‘Big Three’ met for arguably the most important and controversial of the conferences of the Second World War. At the Yalta...

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25:51

The Doolittle Raid

25 February 2021

Today, we're talking about one of the great stories of American military history; The Doolittle Raid. In 1942 after the humiliation assault on Pearl...

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22:59

Petra: Rise of the Nabataeans

25 February 2021

The assumption had once been that they were nomads until the Romans came. But more recent archaeological work in modern day Jordan is dispelling...

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21:06

Anti-government Violence in America

24 February 2021

Leah Sottile joins me today to talk all about domestic terrorism and anti-government groups in the USA. In particular, we talk about the armed...

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40:58

Battle of Britain: Why The RAF Won

24 February 2021

In 15 September 1940, the Luftwaffe made a gigantic aerial assault on London in the belief that the Royal Air Force was down to its last few...

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46:46

Remembering the Alamo with W. F. Strong

23 February 2021

In this episode taken from our archive, I headed out to Texas in 2016 to discuss the Battle of the Alamo and what its legacy means for modern Texas....

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32:59

John of Gaunt: THE Royal Ancestor

22 February 2021

Helen Carr joins me today to discuss John of Gaunt: son of Edward III, younger brother to the Black Prince, uncle of Richard II and father of Henry...

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31:46

Scapa Flow's Sunken German Battle Fleet

22 February 2021

At the end of World War One, the Allies seized the German fleet and held it at Scapa Flow, in Orkney, until the terms of the Treaty of Versailles...

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49:40

In Conversation with David Baddiel

21 February 2021

In this episode taken from our archive, David Baddiel talks to Dan about the Second World War, Trump's Mussolini-isms, and why Jim Callaghan makes...

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40:42

Lugdunum: The Biggest Battle in Roman History?

21 February 2021

In 197 AD, the armies of Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus met at Lugdunum, on the site of present day Lyon. If we believe the numbers given in...

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30:07

Brexit History Showdown with Robert Tombs

20 February 2021

Five years after the announcement of the Brexit referendum I am joined on the podcast by Robert Tombs, author of The Sovereign Isle: Britain In and...

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25:54

Vikings: River Kings

19 February 2021

Today, I am joined by Cat Jarman bio-archaeologist and author of a new book all about how the Vikings spread east, often utilising the rivers of...

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24:49

William Stephenson: Declaring War on the Nazis

19 February 2021

Henry Hemming talks to Dan Snow about the life of William Stephenson, a British operative who worked hard to pressure Roosevelt into declaring war on...

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21:45

Frostquake

18 February 2021

In the winter of 1962-63, the UK experienced a different kind of lockdown as freezing temperatures and ten weeks of snow kept people trapped at home...

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46:57

Palmyra: Pearl of the Desert

18 February 2021

Palmyra features in headlines today as a casualty of IS destruction, but during its heyday it was a monumental city set on an oasis in the Syrian...

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39:30

Besieging Masada

17 February 2021

Dramatically placed on a plateau with drops of 400m to the east and 90m to the west, Masada translates from Hebrew as fortress. It became just...

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37:27

War Widows of WW2

17 February 2021

After the Second World War, societies across the world struggled under a mass of social and political change. This disjointed period serves as the...

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24:36

Love Lives: From Cinderella to Frozen

16 February 2021

We cover all the big topics on the podcast including weapons of mass destruction, climate change, great power rivalry and the struggle for...

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26:14

Hitler and Stalin

15 February 2021

I am joined by Laurence Rees, the best selling author, who has met more people that had direct contact with both Hitler and Stalin than any other...

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